Michael Mckean will not be able to complete his Broadway role in the revival of “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man”, after being injured by a car in New York City on Tuesday.
Producer Jeffrey Richards said that after scrambling to find a replacement, James Lecesne will take over McKean’s role from now on.
McKean, 64, who played lead singer David St. Hubbins in the movie Spinal Tap, and Lenny on the hit TV series Laverne & Shirley, was injured when he was hit by a car at West 86th Street and Broadway in Manhattan just before 3 p.m. A spokesperson for McKean said that his leg was broken in the accident.
Richards said McKean was in stable condition and is recovering from his injuries.
“I understand from his team that he has never missed a performance in his career,” Richards said in a release. “So this is the kind of first we are reluctant to announce.”
Set in Philadelphia during a fictional 1960 national convention, “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” pits two candidates against each other while vying for their unnamed party’s presidential nomination — the East Coast intellectual Bill Russell, a former U.S. secretary of state, and the venal Tennessee Senator Joe Cantwell. McKean played Russell’s campaign director.
Lecesne, who is making his Broadway debut in the show, had been playing a smaller role as a reporter from The Washington Post.
McKean was among an all star cast that includes James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, Candice Bergen, Kerry Butler, Angela Lansbury, and Eric McCormack. The play has been nominated for a Tony for best revival.
